Portable multimedia players are well known in the art and are designed to convert a digital file, stored on a magnetic medium or in flash memory, into streaming video and audio. Typically, portable multimedia players include an onboard screen for presenting the video stream, and at least one of (i) an onboard speaker for ‘presenting’ the audio stream and/or (ii) an audio media port for exporting the audio stream (for example, to headphones).
One salient feature of portable multimedia players is their relatively low power consumption, which allows users to listen to view movies using power provided by an onboard internal battery. To achieve this low power consumption, portable multimedia players are designed to save as much energy as possible, and their electronics are tightly designed for presenting video on a small display and at relatively low quality. In addition, some portable multimedia players also provide an output plug, which may be plugged into a media input port of a large screen (for example, a television), if available. This enables display of the ‘low quality video, which is generated internally within the portable multimedia player, on the large screen.
It would be very much desired and appreciated by electronic entertainment consumers to have a pocket-sized portable media device that is capable of generating and exporting a ‘higher quality’ media signal to an external screen and/or speaker.